2,000 couples marry in South Korea in mass wedding ceremony

South Korea's Unification Church held a mass wedding and holy blessing for 2,000 couples from 54 countries today.

The Unification Church was officially founded by Sun Myung Moon in 1954. His followers have been dubbed "Moonies." Moon moved to America in 1959, where he established his international headquarters.

Moon claims to be a Messiah and has matched up thousands of his followers in mass weddings. The marriages are arranged and many have never met their spouse until the day of their marriage. In some cases, the couples do not even speak the same language.

"The mass wedding leads all mankind to be one, removing the boundaries of ethnicities, religions and nationalities. Our goal is making the world peaceful with forming new families," Seuk Joon-ho, President of the Unification Church of Korea, told the UK's Telegraph (see video embedded below).

{video link}

D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

More Posts - Website - Twitter